Israeli startups raised nearly $500m in Sep

The country's startups raised over $4.5 billion in the first nine months of 2018, well on course to beat last year's record of $5.24 billion.

Israeli startups raised nearly $500 million in September, according to press releases issued by companies that have completed financing rounds. The figure may be more as some companies prefer not to publicize the investments they have received.

This sum can be added to the more than $3.1 billion that Israeli startups raised in the first half of 2018, according to IVC-ZAG. The country's startups also raised an estimated $650 million in July and $300 million in August, bringing the amount raised by startups in the first nine months of 2018 to over $4.5 billion, well on course to beat last year's record of $5.24 billion, according to IVC-ZAG.

The amount raised in September was especially impressive taking into account the number of holidays during the month. Most of the sum was raised in large financing rounds from more veteran startups led by business analytics company Sisense, which raised $80 million. MeMed Diagnostics, which has developed a rapid test to differentiate bacterial and viral infection and combat antibiotic resistance, raised $70 million and fraud prevention company Forter raised $50 million. Digital adoption company WalkMe raised $40 million, AI sports production company Pixellot raised $30 million, and marketing data startup Singluar raised $30 million. Radiation cancer therapy company Alpha Tau Medical raised $29 million and open source security company Snyk raised $22 million.